X-YZE (pronounced "excise") is a bump combat action game with a mysterious short story.

 

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CLICK FOR CONTENT WARNINGS (a little spoilery)

psychological manipulation, anxiety, panic attacks, gender/body/identity dysphoria, depression, dissociation, mild body horror, suicidal ideation

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FEATURES

• Play as a creature!

• Bump combat

• Mostly linear servers (aka levels), each with unique types of daemons (aka non-boss enemies) / hazards / etc and a boss fight at the end

• Unlockable arcade mode (includes server and boss practice)

• 2-4hr playtime, depending on playstyle (less than 1hr is viable in arcade mode)

• ~3k words of a mysterious short story, delivered in small doses throughout and between servers

• Keyboard and gamepad support

• All original music, sound effects, and art

MECHANICS

• BUMP COMBAT - No attack button. Just walk into daemons to attack automatically.

• DASH - Just as useful for offense as for evasion.
  (NOTE: Dash not unlocked at start of game)

• DIAGONAL MOVEMENT IS FASTER - Yes, I know how to normalize my vectors. No, I will not normalize my vectors.

• ATTACK GAUGE - Your attacks charge up the gauge and therefore increases your damage; but even 1 hit from a daemon resets it!

• DAEMON & SERVER VARIETY - The player mechanics have depth, but they are fairly simple. The spice comes from how those mechanics interact with the daemon and server design.

CONTROLS

KEYBOARD:

• Arrow keys / WASD: Move
• Z / Spacebar: Dash, Confirm, Advance text
• Esc: Pause, Skip text

GAMEPAD:

• D-pad / Left stick: Move
• Bottom / Left face buttons: Dash, Confirm, Advance text
• Start: Pause, Skip text

NOTE: Dash is not unlocked at the start of the game

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BONUS STUFF

The game is free, but you can get some goodies if you pay certain amounts...

 For $10 or more, X-YZE BONUS PACK: 

• SERVER & DAEMON GUIDE - 35-page PDF full of tips & blurbs about each server and daemon in the game. Includes exclusive illustrations by Alix of every daemon!

• CONCEPT ARTBOOK - 15-page PDF showcasing concept art from throughout development, plus some scrapped stuff. Includes commentary from Alix!

• LEVEL DESIGN NOTEBOOK SKETCHES - Folder of level design notebook sketches from as early as Feb, 2024 (1 month into development).

• GAME TRANSCRIPT - Simple PDF containing the full text of the game.

 For $15 or more, X-YZE BONUS PACK + X-YZE SFX PACK: 

• All the sound effects I made for the game, plus some unused ones.

• 150 sound effects, 44.1k / 16-bit WAV format.

• Royalty-free, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

 The SOUNDTRACK is available separately on Bandcamp 

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CREDITS

CHRIS LOGSDON: Game design, programming, music & SFX, writing, logo, most in-game art, most daemon character design, character design for 1 boss, Server & Daemon Guide

ALIX LYTTON: Player character design, most boss character design, dialogue portrait art, cover art, character design for 3 of the daemons, Concept Artbook, feedback + testing + proofreading

JACOB ALBANO: Some tools dev

PLAYTESTERS: Alix Lytton, azalea evergreen, John Thyer, Melos Han-Tani, NARFNra, Polly, Seth Prestwich, Sraëka Lillian, Thomas "jetstorm4" L.

SOUNDFONTS: stgiga; CliffyJiffy, Kaiden; jsw11jsw, VentusArranger; HandlebarOrionX; Joo

FONTS: EquipmentPro, yolk_6 by somepx; monogram by datagoblin; NotJamSciMono13, NotJamSlabSerif11 by Not Jam; m3x6, m5x7 by Daniel Linssen

INSPIRATIONS

I plan to write in more detail about all of this in the future, but here are some highlights...

• Bump combat: Ys I and II, Angeline Era, Sylvie RPG: 7 Elf Apocalypse
• Various mechanics: Many shmups of old
• Aesthetics: Mega Man Battle Network, Phantasy Star Online, Summer Wars, Digimon, PC-88 era HUDs
• Music: Too many to list here, but in general I tried to only listen to non-mainstream non-video-game music while composing the OST
• Touhou very much informed the pace I dole out story

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